Traditional telephony presents a problem for persons who are who are D-HOH-SI. Communication by audio telephones requires each party to the call to be able to hear and/or speak to the other party in order to communicate. For hearing or speech impaired persons, audio communication is difficult or impossible, precluding the use of audio telephony.
The availability of affordable, high-speed packet-switched communications has led to the growth in the use of Video Relay Service (VRS) communication by D-HOH-SI persons. Using VRS equipment, D-HOH-SI persons can place video calls to communicate between themselves and with hearing individuals (non-D-HOH-SI) using sign language (SL). VRS equipment enables D-HOH-SI persons to talk to hearing individuals via a sign language interpreter (SLI), who uses a conventional telephone at the same time to communicate with the party or parties with whom the D-HOH-SI person wants to communicate.
In a corrections environment (e.g., prison, juvenile detention center, etc.), communications between inmates and the outside world present a unique set of issues due to various safety and security concerns for both called parties and even inmates. Considering that some inmates will be non-D-HOH-SI and others will be classified as D-HOH-SI, and also that some called parties will be non-S-HOH-SI while others may be D-HOH-SI, multiple scenarios of all-audio, video plus audio, or all-video calling methods may be necessary to address the needs of both inmates and called parties. FIG. 1 characterizes the requirements for each of these types of call, some of which (e.g., any call in which either the inmate and/or the called party is non-D-HOH-SI) have already been addressed by correctional institutions. The scenario in which both the inmate and the called party are D-HOH-SI, however, is a recently-recognized need, which through legal action on the part of inmates and advocates working on behalf of the D-HOH-SI community (both inmates and the general public) will soon be required on the part of correctional institutions.
All inmate-to-called party communications are typically subject to restrictions on who may be called by a particular inmate (each inmate may have a unique list of authorized numbers) and also restrictions on which called parties are confidential (attorneys, clergy)—non-confidential calls may routinely be recorded for security and safety considerations. With the advent of person-to-person (P-to-P) calling in cases where both the inmate and called party are D-HOH-SI, it will be necessary to maintain the same restrictions for these all-video calls. However, since these calls are all-video, unlike the case for earlier calling where one or both parties (inmate and called party) were non-D-HOH-SI, a possible complication may arise in which the inmate may “communicate” via non-American Sign Language (non-ASL) methods, essentially circumventing the security and safety goals intended to be addressed by audio or video recording of calls. These non-ASL methods may comprise wearing a certain color or patterned shirt, wearing a certain pin on the shirt, using non-ASL gestures, non-speech sounds, etc. These non-ASL methods can be used by the inmate to further criminal activities outside of the corrections facility by signaling to a non-incarcerated person outside of the corrections facility to engage in the furtherance of an illegal activity, for example, witness intimidation. Although video recording of the call may still capture these non-ASL methods, their meaning to correctional and law enforcement officers may be obscure or undecipherable, both in real-time during calls and even in subsequent reviews of video call recordings.